On second thought about this case, I am reluctant to buy it because of the size and had read some where just the electronics on it uses 150 watts!

I looked at many cases and could not find one with all of these features or even close.

Consequently, I would take it kindly if some of you would tell me the name of a case with the above features. It would not have to have a hot swap drive. I could buy one and plug it into the PC. 9 slots are not needed.

My concern is that the PC has another port to plug in my backup drive.

Lastly, would you, folks, recommend a Sandy Bridge motherboard with Z68 on it?

Are you sure the case uses 150W? That seems like an awful lot. I glanced through the specs and it didn't seem to say anything about power consumption. If that's a huge consideration for you, I'd do some reading and figure out whether the case actually uses that much power. Then again, if you're considering that kind of an enclosure, chances are you'll have a big enough PSU (to power everything else) that power won't be much of a problem.

In terms of the Z68, I haven't upgraded to Sandy Bridge yet... that project is still in the planning stages. From what I've read though, the Z68 seems to be one of the better chips out there. Here's a good article on that: http://techreport.com/articles.x/20911

I have six external 5-1/4" bays selected because in the future I may want to put fan speed controls there. I may Change to 3-1/4" drives and if new 5-14"components come out, I'll have a place for them.

Why would this many drive bays limit my choices? What choices?

Skialex25:

No, I can't be sure if the case uses 150w, but I had read it somewhere. Unfortunately I did not make a note of the URL. Yes, it does seem like a lot of power usage. I could not find a website telling the amount of power used by the case.

Dede wrote:Why would this many drive bays limit my choices? What choices?

It limits your choices because there are many cases that have only 4 or 5 external 5-1/4" bays.

How many fan speed controllers do you need? They make controllers for up to 6 fans. The only USB 3 equipped cases that I know about with 6 external 5.25" bays are the Cooler Master cases. Having had a couple of very heavy cases, I can tell you that moving a 30 lbs case with a system built in it is backbreaking and awkward.

If you really want a giant case, you could go with the Lian Li PC-P80N. It has 12 externally accessible bays...though the removable 3.5" hard drive cages sit behind the lower 9, giving you any combination of 3 bays that you want. The lowest cage actually supports 4 x 3.5" and 2x 2.5" drives. There is no front firewire, but it does have 4 front USB 3.0 ports, eSATA, and audio. Of course, it is even more expensive than its non-USB 3.0 predecessor which has somewhat less flexible bay configuration. Still, the monster's shipping weight is only 22 lbs...meaning that the case is around 18.

If you can live with 5 external 5.25" bays, the [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112342]Lian Li PC-A70F. This one has been updated with USB 3 ports.

Both cases have more internal drive bays than your selection. They do not have the integrated SATA dock. Their aluminum construction does make them lighter and Lian Li cases are sturdy aluminum cases, not the thin-shelled, warp-prone cheaper cases. Aluminum is also a much better thermal conductor than steel or plastic, effectively making the case itself a big heat sink.

Even with 2 optical drives and 2 fan speed controllers, you only need 4 external 5.25" bays which opens up a LOT more case options. Including many that are lighter (and so more convenient to work on) and

The Corsair 650D has a lot of what you're looking for. Front USB2, USB3, Firewire, and audio jacks. SATA dock. Internal cable routing. Four externa. 5.25" bays, and a ton of internal 3.5" bays, all of which are toolless. Built in Lo/Med/Hi fan controller supporting three fans (the case has two 200mm fans, and one 120mm included).

If you're going with a Sandy Bridge CPU, I can't see a reason not to go with a Z68 chipset mainboard, unless you already have a P67 mainboard from a previous build.

[SDG]Mantis wrote:Aluminum is also a much better thermal conductor than steel or plastic, effectively making the case itself a big heat sink.

If you're relying on conduction through the case panels for cooling, you've got airflow problems!

Yeah that's what my Trusty old Lian-Li PC-70 has emblazoned on the side right next to supports pentium 4 and other 1ghz cpu Ive never seen my case warm enough for it to act that way, and if it did I would prob turn it off.

Dede wrote:I have six external 5-1/4" bays selected because in the future I may want to put fan speed controls there.

Why not go with an Asus motherboard (you can use the MIR on Open Box items BTW) that has excellent on-board fan speed controls and the rest of the fans can just be fixed speed low rpm. Put a variable speed fan blowing at the GPU area and let the mobo regulate it, the rest can be fixed rpm. Also, just because a case comes with 7 fan mounts doesn't mean you have to populate every one of them. I dont know that you'd need to add ANY fans to what's already included in that HAF case. And I highly doubt it's 4 included fans pull 150W, I'd be interested to see where you heard that.

Do you really need 9 expansion slots or were you just listing that as a feature? Even Extended ATX mobos only have 7 slots.

I think a better way to go about this would be to list how many hard drives, SSDs, optical drives, mobo expansion cards, etc you currently have and what you plan to add to your existing setup. Then we're not trying to find cases that have the same features as the one you already picked out. Not all fan controllers take up two 5.25" bays. There are single bay controllers that can control 4+ fans.